Chris Marker (b. July 29 1921 - July 30 2012) was a writer, photographer, filmmaker, multi-media artist and world traveller, whose cinematic essays have been challenging audiences for more than half a century with their complex queries about time, memory and the nature of truth. A self-effacing figure who was rarely interviewed and even more rarely photographed (when asked for a picture of himself, he usually offered a photograph of a cat instead), Marker is considered by many critics as one of the most important directors in the world. His prolific output as a filmmaker included such landmarks as Lettre de Sibérie (1957), La Jetée (1962), Le Joli Mai (1963), Sans Soliel (1983) and Level Five (1997).